The Cinci Han is a 17th-century Ottoman caravanserai at the heart of Safranbolu's old bazaar, one of the best-preserved examples in Turkey and now operating as a hotel. Two storeys of stone arches surround a cobblestone courtyard where travellers once lodged their animals and slept in the rooms above. The scale is impressive — the han could accommodate hundreds of merchants and their horses — and the stonework is solid and elegant in the way Ottoman public buildings of this period routinely managed to be.
The conversion to a hotel is done sensitively: the rooms in the upper galleries maintain their original dimensions and proportions, and the courtyard is used for outdoor dining in summer. Even if you are not staying here, it is worth walking into the courtyard to see the building's structure. The adjacent Cinci Hammam was built at the same time by the same patron and is still in operation.